News in Brief: Catch up on school, local and national news

California’s ban on plastic bags in grocery stores will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, potentially affecting the amount of plastic wasted in California

A ban of the distribution of all plastic bags in California grocery stores was signed into law on Sept. 22 and will start taking effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

Residents of California will have the choice to buy paper or reusable bags to carry their groceries in — removing the plastic option completely.

The ban is supposed to eliminate the need for recycling plastic, which often ends up in landfills according to the President of the Environmental Club at East, junior Shubra Durgavathi. Durgavathi hopes that the ban on all plastic bags would prove more effective and that East will take inspiration from the ban.

“I hope to reduce [plastic use at East] quite a bit,” Durgavathi said. “Have you seen the apple slices that are in plastic baggies [in the cafeteria]? Just cut the apples. They're fine, people will live if they’re a little brown. They don't need to be individually packaged.”

Currently, the environmental club is working on making new signs and lids for the trash cans in the cafeteria that will show students exactly what items should be recycled, composted or thrown in the trash in an effort to reduce waste.

California originally implemented a ban on single use plastic bags in 2014 which didn’t account for the purchase of thicker plastic bags from grocery stores. Plastic bags ended up in the landfill like before, only in larger amounts according to NPR. Durgavathi hopes the most recent ban in California will actually reduce plastic waste instead of increasing it. 

“I’ve always heard about the environment and our effect on the environment,” Durgavathi said. “I don’t want to create a world that's unsafe for the people who are going to be here after us.”

The owners of Country Club Plaza released plans for what they want the Plaza to look like in the future at the Plaza Art Fair on Sept. 20

Highland Park Village Management, the new owners of Country Club Plaza, released plans for renovations at the Plaza Art fair in an attempt to attract more people to spend time at the shopping district.

Some improvements the owners have envisioned for the Plaza include increasing security due to safety concerns, adding more outdoor dining and incorporating more local stores, according to the Kansas City Star.

Ryan Holmes, Senior Vice President of Investments at Merrill Lynch, has worked on the Plaza for 20 years and used to enjoy the beauty of it.

“We've gone from having incredible landscaping, you know, vibrant restaurants and shopping to where [the Plaza is] basically a place that I don't really go to very often outside of work,” Holmes said.

The owners also plan to close roads in the center of the Plaza to block cars and create wider sidewalks with cobblestone streets for aesthetic purposes.

Sophomore Halima Talbi goes to the Plaza once a week to see her family who lives there and to visit the shops.

“I think people are gonna like [the Plaza] a lot more,” Talbi said. “[The] cobblestone [streets are] gonna look really Victorian and cutesy.”

Students and teachers continue to have internet problems with their computers this year

Internet problems at East remain prominent for students and teachers this year, with students reporting issues at least three times a week. Associate Principal Anna Thiele acknowledges the internet issues but doesn’t have information regarding the cause for them. 

“The first time [I heard about it] was mentioned in passing by another teacher who was like, ‘Have you ever noticed how the internet blinks off every day at a certain time period?’” Thiele said. “If people fill out a Web Help Desk ticket, then we'll have a trail of it actually happening so there's nothing I can do right now.”

In an Instagram poll, 85% of 180 voters said that they’d been affected by internet issues at East.

Due to these problems, students have resorted to restarting their computers multiple times or using the hotspot on their phone according to sophomores Anna Nazar and Justine Mercer.

This year, Nazar and her classmates’ internet stopped working when they had to complete assignments in their Spanish 4 class with a substitute teacher. 

“It builds up stress, you know, because then if you can't see your assignments, you have to do them at home, and I have no time to do them at home.” Nazar said.